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5 things you missed: Instagram competes with Snapchat and more

By Kelly Metz, Digital First Media

Updated:
12/12/2013 04:18:10 PM EST

The Instagram logo is displayed on a smartphone. (Getty Images)

1. Is Instagram trying to become the next Snapchat?

Instagram users can now send photos and videos to their friends, similar to the Snapchat instant messaging system. The difference? The photos don't disappear after a pre-determined time, like they do with Snapchat, but instead can be manually deleted from recipients' phones by the sender.

Instagram Direct lets users send one post to up to 15 friends and recipients can like and comment on each photo.

Are you sick and tired of that “Display images below” link when looking through your Gmail messages? Good news, with a new update from Google, all images will be displayed automatically.

The images will be displayed automatically on all desktop, iOS and Android versions of Gmail, and everything is served through Google's own servers – so you don't have to worry about the risks associated with displaying images from unknown sources.

Starting Dec. 12, the Federal Communications Commission will start discussions on how to make it easier for cell phone users to unlock their phones when switching to a new carrier. Here are some changes that could come:

Carriers may start texting or emailing users when their phone is eligible to be unlocked.

Network operators may review and decide on unlock requests within 48 hours.

Waze, the traffic app that crowdsources updates on road conditions, just launched a new version that streamlines its design, displaying just four features to make things a little easier for users. Here's a summary:

Navigate: Lets you plot your destination

My Waze: Shows personal settings

Send ETA: E-mails or shares the link to your route

Inbox: Shows incoming email

You can also get a running report on traffic jams, accidents, road closures and speed traps with the latest update.

Now that you know you can get to where you're going with Waze – the real question is, where are you going? Peek, a website that lets users book travel, has just launched an iOS app that uses geo-location on your phone to show you what's near, what to do with kids, and also provides city guides.

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